Sharper Iron: Love Rejoices With the Truth

Rev. Dr. David Lewis from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, studies 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Today’s study covers the greatest spiritual power, whether Christians need to speak in tongues, and love rejoicing in the truth. Today’s program is a rebroadcast from August 22, 2017.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

The Way of Love

13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b]6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Footnotes:

1 Corinthians 13:3 Some manuscripts deliver up my body [to death] that I may boast

You might need to pull up Google to understand this bio for Rev. Jonathan Fisk. If you ask him what he has in his favorite mug, it’s probably Bulletproof coffee with Matcha Tea. This native West Coaster keeps two chickens, Arrakis and Shai Hulud, but if he cooks for you, you’ll get to taste his famous curry. Although his bookshelf is full of theological books, you’ll most likely find him reading Herman Sasse. When he’s not cranking out programming and interviewing guests, you might find him in jeans and flip flops writing his next bit of fiction or finding the next island he’d like to explore.